MBA Chart of the Week: Multifamily Lending Trends

Source: Mortgage Bankers Association Multifamily Lending Report

In this week’s Chart of the Week, we examine MBA’s 2025 Annual Report on Multifamily Lending, which found that multifamily mortgage lending staged a strong recovery in 2025, with origination volume climbing 32% to $381.8 billion. The rebound marks a turnaround after several challenging years for the sector: after peaking near $490 billion in 2021, on the back of historically low interest rates, volume pulled back sharply through 2023, as higher rates and valuation uncertainty sidelined many borrowers and lenders. The 2025 totals suggest that capital is once again flowing more freely into multifamily properties, even as the market remains well below its 2021-2022 highs.

The composition of 2025 report also tells a story of a market broadening beyond its largest capital sources. While Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and banks continue to anchor the bulk of multifamily debt, 2,530 different lenders originated loans in 2025, and 45 percent of them made five or fewer loans over the course of the year. The combination of large agency and bank programs alongside smaller, more specialized lenders, has defined multifamily finance for two decades and continues to give borrowers multiple paths to capital regardless of loan size or property type.

• Reggie Booker (rbooker@mba.org)